Qantas signs new partnership with NSW Government

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres and Qantas representatives

The NSW Government and Qantas have signed a new three-year, $28 million partnership aimed at driving additional tourism growth by promoting Sydney and regional NSW to the world.

NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres said the agreement continues to be the highest value partnership between an airline and State Government in Australia.

“NSW is the home of inbound international travel so I am delighted to announce the continuation of this partnership with our country’s national carrier, Qantas,” Ayres said.

“As Australia’s premier tourism and events destination, NSW received 3.6 million overseas visitors spending nearly $9 billion in NSW in the 12 months to March this year.

“This partnership will drive further visitor growth to our great state by showcasing all we have to offer through joint advertising campaigns, social media, database marketing, trade partner campaigns as well as trade and media opportunities.

“Offering our visitors exciting major events and safe, high quality air travel through key industry partners including Qantas are critical as we work towards our goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure to NSW by 2020,” he said.

Qantas International CEO, Gareth Evans, said the national carrier had brought more than one million visitors to Sydney in 2015 – nearly double any other airline – and was pleased to keep investing in tourism attraction with the NSW Government for another three years.

“As the largest private investor in Australian tourism, it’s an exciting time to attract more visitors to NSW, particularly with the relatively low Australian dollar and record high tourist numbers from markets like China and the US,” Evans said.

As part of the new agreement, Destination NSW and Qantas will launch a Virtual Reality, three-stage, digital marketing project aimed at driving early bookings to Vivid Sydney 2017 – the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas.